Garden CEO Hank Ratner: "The Garden is the standard by which other arenas get measured."

NEW YORK – We were sitting near the last row of Madison Square Garden, foul line extended, looking down at the court -- which at this altitude is nine stories down, or nosebleed distance from where the Knicks will play a preseason game tonight night against Charlotte.

At eye level, however, was a 327-ton bridge. A carpeted walkway, really, suspended from the iconic Garden ceiling. There was another one – also 233 feet long and 23 feet wide – on the other side of the arena.

Your first thought is not about safety or the need for a birds-eye view of Carmelo’s head. Your first thought is about the mind of this bridge builder, and what went through it as he conceived such a thing, because it felt like a futuristic, concept-art fantasy.

“A herculean task,” said Murray Beynon, a principle at the Toronto-based architectural giant Brisbin Brook Beynon. “We (thought) it would be a unique viewing point. Plus, what is New York known for, particularly Manhattan? Very iconic bridges. And the majority of them (are) suspension bridges.”

But they’re not bolted to the roof of Madison Square Garden.

“We wanted to integrate the bridges into the experience,” continued Beynon, a Canadian with glasses and a shock of white curly hair. “Almost to create a suspended concourse like you’re used to seeing in other buildings, only this isn’t attached to the side.”

It’s unique, all right.

Everything felt new about the Garden, which was unveiled yesterday upon the completion of its renovation in a mass media splash attended by everyone from Willis Reed to Mark Messier to Andrew Cuomo. When you see it, you’re likely to think two things: It’s impressive what a billion of Jim Dolan’s dollars can do; and what the heck have they done to our childhood Shangri-La?

Or maybe you don’t get melancholic about buildings, but this wasn’t just a building.

This is where Willis came out of the tunnel, though that tunnel was removed after Phase One a few years back. This is where (warning: youthful bias ahead) Ali actually beat Frazier before Arthur Mercante and the judges robbed him blind. This is where Stemkowski beat Espo on the rebound in the third overtime of Game 6. This is where George Harrison produced the greatest concert of the decade.

All four of those things happened in the span of 15 months, which is why you believed John Condon when he called the space inside this giant drum on 33rd and 7th a magical world.

It was more than an arena, it was a building with a soul. As such, you would prefer that it is somehow restyled in the idiom of tradition.

It takes an architectural path that is undoubtedly daring, with technology everywhere you turn, and some of us will just have to get used to the fact that tradition doesn’t pay the bills anymore. Sure, there are some concessions -- wall displays on the concourse, the same banners hanging from the ceiling, and memorabilia on the ninth floor, which you won’t see unless you’re invited to a plush “Signature Suite.”

The view from the top section of the renovated Madison Square Garden, with the Chase Bridge in the foreground. Courtesy of Madison Square Garden

But as with everyone else in this market, they’ve moved the game.

“We went out to our customers and asked what would you like us to go do?” Garden CEO Hank Ratner said. “The event level suites didn’t exist before. The midlevel suites – 58 of them – a new product. The 1879 Club, Delta Club -- these are new products. So they’ve been virtually sold out from the time each of them all came online.”

Ratner and Dolan deserved their day of celebration, but they were spared the usual round of questions about how the middle class has been priced out of the Garden. Ratner dodged questions about how MSG has had a property tax exemption since 1982, and for reasons only the state legislature can explain, bills to have it revoked have stalled. (Total savings: $350 million.)

MSG doth protests. We’re financing our own renovation, they say, while all the other teams in town (Nets, Yankees, Mets) get public subsidies to build their arenas. It’s a valid point.

Somehow, however, our sympathy was tested after they jacked up the price of every ticket by 50 percent prior to 2011-12 to pay for this, which means a Knicks ticket now costs more than twice as much as the NBA average.

So now you have bridges, if you’re not acrophobic. Beware if you are claustrophobic, however: There are two rows of seats (a total of 355) along the north walkway, enclosed by ¾-inch glass, which gives you a penalty-box vibe.

This helps make the Garden “the standard by which other arenas get measured,” Ratner said. “There are many other arenas in the marketplace that are peripheral. But we think about the Garden, it holds a special place in people’s heart and always will.”

He’s right about that part. Only now can we understand when the old men tell us about the halcyon days of the Old Garden on 49th and 8th. “But today is about the future,” Cuomo warned nostalgists. We sat in the upper tier, where half the visitors reside, and saw what he meant: The best view of the game will be on a 145-foot monitor, attached to a bridge going nowhere.